This report presents data from the Survey of Institutionalized Persons (SIP) conducted by the Bureau of the Census in 1976 for the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The survey focused on long-term care institutions, that is, facilities which offer residential care to persons for an average stay of 30 days or more. For this study long-term care institutions were classified into six major types: nursing homes and homes for the aged, facilities for children, facilities for the physically handicapped, psychiatric institutions, facilities for the mentally handicapped, and “other" long-term institutions such as those offering care for chronic diseases and extended care facilities of short-term hospitals.

This survey was designed to (1) provide a three-dimensional statistical profile of long-term institutionalization—the institution, the resident, and the resident's family; (2) update the 1967 Survey of Institutionalized Adults conducted for the Social Security Administration (see appendix B); and (3) provide baseline data for policy and program planning.